The Anglo-Dutch conflicts have proved useful for the VOC for driving out its competitors, the EIC, from the Indonesian archipelago, by force of arms.

According to the Treaty of Westminster ending the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652–1654, Pulo Run, the only English factory in the Spice Island, should have been returned to England.

The first attempt in 1660 had failed due to formal constraints by the Dutch; after the second in 1665, the English traders are expelled in the same year and the Dutch destroy the nutmeg trees, excluding the English from the clove trade.

The Japan trade loses most of its importance for the VOC when in 1668 the Shogun embargoes the export of silver, with which the VOC have been using to finance most of its spice trade.

As Spanish bullion is now again easily obtainable for the Dutch, this does not greatly impede the VOC.

The VOC is by 1669 the richest private company the world had ever seen, with over one hundred and fifty merchant ships, forty warships, fifty thousand employees, a private army of ten thousand soldiers, and a dividend payment of forty percent on the original investment.

The Dutch government, because of the importance of the French market to its national economy, at first tries to ignore the hostile policies of Colbert.

Its inaction is also caused by differences of opinion about how best to proceed within the States Party.

Amsterdam, and especially the Amsterdam diplomat Coenraad van Beuningen, argue in favor of firm economic countermeasures against the French economic policies, together with the forming of a defensive alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

De Witt, however, prefers the avoidance of such foreign entanglements and a conciliatory approach in the economic sphere.

The industrial cities of Leiden and Haarlem, their economic interests severely damaged by the French protectionism, side with Amsterdam in support of a more belligerent diplomacy.

After promising the Rotterdam regents compensation for the damage to their wine trade to win their assent, the States of Holland settle in 1671 on severe retaliatory measures against French imports, in effect banning French wine, vinegar, paper, and sail-canvas, setting the stage set for war.

War breaks out again in 1673 and continues until 1677, when Khoikhoi resistance is destroyed by a combination of superior European weapons and Dutch manipulation of divisions among the local people.

Hereafter, Khoikhoi society in the western Cape disintegrates.

Some people find jobs as shepherds on European farms; others reject foreign rule and
move away from the Cape.

Eastern West Indies (1672–1683 CE): Sugar Economies, Consolidation, and Demographic Transformation

Expansion of the Sugar Economy

Between 1672 and 1683, the Eastern West Indies solidified their position as a crucial component of Europe's burgeoning sugar-based economy. Sugar, increasingly popular in Europe, became a prime commodity due to its favorable balance between bulk and value—an essential consideration given the era's limitations in shipping technology and the high costs of transoceanic transport. This transformation dramatically reshaped landholding patterns and economic dynamics across the region.

Concentration of Wealth and Land

The shift toward sugar cultivation significantly altered local socio-economic structures. For instance, in Barbados, a representative case, the sugar revolutions profoundly changed ownership patterns. In 1640, Barbados had approximately ten thousand settlers, predominantly small white landholders. By 1680, a small elite of one hundred seventy-five planters controlled about fifty-four percent of the island’s land, servants, and enslaved Africans. The island's demographics had drastically changed, now comprising around thirty-eight thousand enslaved Africans and more than two thousand landless English servants. Families such as the Rous family exemplified this shift: from modest beginnings in the 1640s, by 1680, they had acquired extensive sugar plantations, hundreds of enslaved laborers, and considerable economic power.

Growth of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

This era saw an exponential increase in the importation of enslaved Africans to sustain the labor-intensive sugar economy. The Dutch West India Company remained critical in supplying enslaved Africans, further embedding the tragic and exploitative triangular trade system that connected Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe. Conditions for enslaved individuals were harsh and oppressive, characterized by grueling labor, rampant disease, and high mortality rates.

Rivalries and Military Fortifications

The increasing wealth generated by the sugar industry attracted persistent threats from rival European powers and pirates. To safeguard their interests, European colonial governments intensified efforts to fortify strategic locations. Santo Domingo and San Juan, Puerto Rico maintained and expanded their network of fortifications, crucial in defending the Spanish colonies from naval threats and piracy.

Decline of Indigenous Populations

By the end of this era, the indigenous Taíno populations had nearly vanished due to a combination of European diseases, harsh labor conditions, social disruption, and the encomienda system. Despite sporadic legislative attempts to protect indigenous peoples, such as the Laws of Burgos from 1512–1513, effective enforcement was virtually nonexistent, leading to near-total demographic collapse and cultural erasure.

Cultural and Ecclesiastical Consolidation

The Roman Catholic Church remained central to the cultural and social organization of the colonies. Ecclesiastical influence was manifested in the continuation and completion of significant religious edifices, notably the cathedrals in Santo Domingo and San Juan, constructed in the distinct Plateresque style.

Conclusion

The period from 1672 to 1683 marked a culmination of the transformations initiated by the sugar revolutions. Economic prosperity driven by sugar cultivation significantly benefited a small colonial elite while intensifying the inhuman conditions faced by the enslaved African population. Simultaneously, European colonial competition and military fortifications continued to shape the geopolitical landscape of the Eastern West Indies, setting enduring patterns of social inequality and economic dependency.

The French had taken Saint Thomas  in 1672 but had soon been driven out by the Dutch.

Chandernagore (present-day Chandannagar) is established in 1673 with the permission of Nawab Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal.

The French acquire Valikondapuram, on the Coromandel Coast, from the Sultan of Bijapur in 1674, and thus is laid the foundation of Pondichéry, which is to become a principal base of the French East India Company.

A ship in the service of the East India Company had been forced to land on Ceylon en route to Persia, after suffering the loss of the ship's mast on November 1659 in a storm.

The ship had been impounded and sixteen of the crew, including Captain Robert Knox and his eifhteen-year-old son, also named Robert Knox, had been taken captive by the troops of the Kandyan king, Râjasingha II.

The elder Knox had inadvertently angered the king by not observing the expected formalities and had the misfortune to do so during a period of tension between the king and some of the European powers.

Although the crew was forbidden from leaving the kingdom, they were treated fairly leniently; the younger Knox was able to establish himself as a farmer, moneylender and peddler.

Both father and son had suffered severely from malaria and the elder Knox had died in February 1661 after a long illness.

The younger Knox had eventually escaped with one companion, Stephen Rutland, after nineteen years of captivity.

The two men were able to reach Arippu, a Dutch fort on the northwest coast of the island.

The Dutch treated Knox generously and transported him to Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, from where he was able to return home on an English vessel, the Caesar, arriving back in London in September 1680.

During the voyage, Knox had written the manuscript of An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, an account of his experiences on Ceylon, which is published in 1681.

The book is accompanied by engravings showing the inhabitants, their customs and agricultural techniques.

It attracts widespread interest and makes Knox internationally famous, influencing Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as well as sparking a friendship with Robert Hooke of the Royal Society.

One of the earliest and most detailed European accounts of life on Ceylon, it is today seen as an invaluable record of the island in the seventeenth century.

The Indian subcontinent had had indirect relations with Europe by both overland caravans and maritime routes, dating back to the fifth century BCE.

The lucrative spice trade with India had been mainly in the hands of Arab merchants.

By the fifteenth century, European traders had come to believe that the commissions they had to pay the Arabs were prohibitively high and therefore sent out fleets in search of new trade routes to India.

The arrival of the Europeans in the last quarter of the fifteenth century marked a great turning point in the history of the subcontinent.

The dynamics of the history of the subcontinent come to be shaped chiefly by the Europeans' political and trade relations with India as India is swept into the vortex of Western power politics.

The arrival of the Europeans generally coincides with the gradual decline of Mughal power, and the subcontinent becomes an arena of struggle not only between Europeans and the indigenous rulers but also among the Europeans.